The Real Debt of Taraba State

 

By Umar A. Umar

 

Danjuma Shiddi (Danji SS) finally found his voice as his failing

 political career hangs. He now speaks like an economist. He quotes figures. He postures like a fiscal hawk. But for eight years in the National Assembly, he never moved a single motion on debt sustainability, never joined any debate on federal fiscal structure, never produced one page of economic argument. He left the National Assembly empty and angry — and that anger is now driving fiction.

 

His central allegation is simple: Taraba owes ₦1.2 trillion. That figure exists only in his head. He manufactured it, then began to defend it as if the lie can become truth by repetition. The ₦350bn bond he cites has not been accessed. It is still in regulatory process. A bond is not a bank overdraft. It cannot be grabbed by a governor in the night. It must be advertised, scrutinized, rated and documented. And the plan — which Danji SS pretends not to know — is to use part of that bond to liquidate short-tenure bank facilities. That reduces the debt exposure, it does not raise it. Every state that understands finance does exactly that.

 

He also quoted the ₦206.78bn facility approved in 2023 as if approval equals cash-in-hand. It does not. The facility was structured, tagged to sectors, and backed with explicit repayment sources: Zenith from FAAC deductions, UBA from JAAC, Fidelity from VAT, Keystone from IGR. Most of these tranches have been servicing for two years. Some will close by December. A loan under amortization cannot equal a loan at approval. Danji SS knows this. He buried it.

 

He admitted that Taraba's domestic debt was ₦105.98bn in 2022 and is now ₦86.96bn. That is a drop — his own words. Yet the same person announces ₦1.2 trillion. From where? From hallucination. He then smuggled the ECOWAS Bank $268.6m project finance into the "debt" basket. That is deceit. That facility is self-repaying off the cashflow of defined production — rice estate, industrial park, 50MW solar plant. ECOWAS does not fund on hope or politics. They funded after feasibility, viability and risk screens. A former legislator who fails to understand project finance should not be issuing lectures on debt.

 

He plays with 2025 budget figures as if they are audited expenditure. He shares allocations as if they are bank statements. He counts FAAC without discounting inflation. He ignores the collapse of naira purchasing power. He ignores the simultaneous wage implementation, free education financing, security stabilization and healthcare delivery funded under the same fiscal space.

 

Remove the bond that has not been accessed. Remove the ECOWAS financing that cannot be classified as debt. Remove the amortized portions serviced since 2023. You arrive in the same neighbourhood as the DMO figure — around ₦84–₦86bn. That is the real number. That is also the number Danji SS quietly admitted then quickly abandoned when it did not fit his script.

 

This debate is not about arithmetic. It is about motive. Danji SS is not confused — he is deliberate. He set out to manufacture panic because bitterness is now his only capital. But numbers do not surrender to emotions. The debt of Taraba is documented, serviced, and shrinking. The lie of ₦1.2 trillion is dead on arrival.

 

Taraba has problems. Debt is not one of them. Dishonest politicians are.

 

 

Umar A Umar is the Coordinator Governor AgbuKefas Independent Strategic Communications Group writes from Jalingo Taraba State